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Abstract
viewers typically ask forced-choice questions, especially yes/no and multiple-choice. In this study, older and younger preschoolers' responses to yes / no and multiplechoice questions were compared. For yes/ no questions, half were correctly answered by "yes" and half by "no." For 2-option multiple-choice questions, the first option was correct for a third of them, the second option was correct for another third, and neither option was correct for the remainder. Half the children were instructed they could say "I don't know." Both older and younger preschoolers demonstrated a response bias toward saying "yes" to yes/ no questions; they did not exhibit response biases for multiple-choice questions, choosing the two given options equivalently often. When neither option was correct, they more frequently said "I don't know", especially younger preschoolers. "I don't know" was almost never given in response to yes/ no questions. Furthermore, instructions allowing "I don't know" had no effect. These results have implications for forensic interviews; they suggest that responses to yes/ no questions are more unreliable and information from them more suspect than responses to multiple-choice questions.
Resume
Malgre les avis contraires, les intervieweurs judiciaires posent generalement des questions avec choix limite de reponse, particulierement des questions supposant une reponse oui ou non ou un choix de reponse. Dans la presente etude, les reponses d'enfants d'age prescolaire a des questions demandant une reponse oui ou non et a choix multiple ont ete comparees. En ce qui concerne les reponses oui ou non, les enfants ont bien repondu a la moitie des reponses par << oui >> et a l'autre moitie, par << non >>. En ce qui a trait aux questions a deux choix de reponse, le premier choix etait le bon pour le tiers d'entre elles, le deuxieme choix etait le bon pour un autre tiers et l'un ou l'autre choix n'etait pas le bon pour les autres. On a indique a la moitie des enfants qu'ils pouvaient repondre << je ne sais pas >>. Tant les plus vieux que les plus jeunes enfants d'age prescolaire ont demontre un biais favorisant la reponse << oui >> a des questions oui ou non; ils ne montraient toutefois pas de biais de reponse dans les questions a choix de reponse, en...